Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to commence by stating that initially, Deputy Martin was entirely right to hand over to the Taoiseach last week material he had received from a member of An Garda Síochána, Sergeant Maurice McCabe. The Taoiseach acknowledged that they were serious matters and undertook to review them. Had Deputy Martin's primary motivation been to have these allegations examined, the proper course of action would have been to let the Taoiseach, who made it clear that he was treating the matter as one of the utmost seriousness, proceed with that examination and respond to the Deputy. Instead, Deputy Martin came into this House last Thursday brandishing a document he states was in my possession for two years. What the Deputy's allegations amounted to was that serious allegations against the Garda had not been addressed, that I had done nothing about them and that I had not responded to correspondence from Sergeant McCabe.

The manner in which Deputy Martin presented the matter understandably led most people to believe that the allegations made had never before been addressed, had only arisen since my appointment as Minister and that the cases concerned had only arisen during my time in office. Moreover, he sought to copper-fasten this impression by accusing me of undermining the administration of justice in this State. No timeline was given by Deputy Martin for the cases investigated by An Garda Síochána or which had come before the courts. Moreover, no distinction was made by him between operational matters, which are the responsibility of An Garda Síochána, and policy issues, which are my responsibility, a distinction well understood by my Fianna Fáil predecessors in the justice portfolio.

I intend to demonstrate to the House today that none of Deputy Martin's political charges is true. Deputy Martin has spoken much in recent days about the maladministration of justice. There are of course fundamental principles of justice that are crucial to this State. They concern fundamental constitutional and human rights and the rule of law, which is something to which I have been passionately committed throughout my adult life. As Minister, I cannot opt to respect the rights of one person and ignore the rights of others. Put simply, while of course any allegations of wrongdoing must be taken seriously, allegations are not facts. I cannot proceed on an assumption that allegations made by one member of An Garda Síochána against many of his colleagues are correct and ignore the rights of those against whom allegations are made. This basic principle holds whether we are talking about An Garda Síochána or any other organisation, group or individual.

I have no doubt that many people outside this House must find bewildering the twists and turns regarding what by any standards is a complex set of circumstances but I am sure they clearly understand one thing, namely, allegations are not facts and basic fairness requires that when allegations are made against people, they should not be assumed to be guilty without hearing the other side of the story or without evidence.

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